As I write this, I am in my 30th week of pregnancy and feeling tired, happy and excited. The journey so far has been really blessed in many ways, as we’ve been surrounded by a lot of love and I’ve been very well throughout thus far.

Embarking on a healthy life journey can be daunting, but also exciting and inspiring. It’s a chance to really look at parts of your life that aren’t working so well in order to create balance and live your best life possible, feeling the best you can in your body, mind and soul.

Where health is concerned Self-love has to come first, because without it we can make no real lasting changes in our lives. When you practice self-love, you can learn to give yourself the space you need to feel your emotions, rather than choosing to blunt them with food or other unhealthy mechanisms. It empowers you to really take charge of your mind, body and soul for radiant health and wellness to be your truth.

At Wholesome Chick Naturopathy one of our underpinning beliefs is that true Health and Wellness is achievable for everyone when it’s broken down into simple steps. Couple this with inspiring motivation and information that empowers you, and you have a great starting point for exciting change to occur. One of the main areas that people REALLY struggle with when starting on their health and wellness journey is food! It can seem overwhelming when you realise that to really nourish your body you need to change the way you are eating, change the food you are buying and the way you are cooking it. That’s why this blog post series has come about. It’s here to show you how to make food and nourishment changes with simplicity, ease and excitement. This first post in the series looks at our snack foods, and simple ideas to make more nourishing choices.

If you follow me on social media, you will know that I've recently had a cold, and I'm certainly not the only one! Being pregnant means that a lot of options are not recommended or safe to use for treating colds, even taking Echinacea. Therefore I've made some of my own immunity boosters using food, and the results have been tasty and efficient. Let's take a look:

Not the most comfortable of health concerns, constipation is irregular or infrequent bowel motions. This can cause pain and frequent wind, as well as bloating and a general feeling of fatigue. There are many reasons why constipation might occur, and they can include:

As a side effect of prescribed medication

Due to food intolerances

Poor detoxification processes in your body

A diet full of processed food and refined carbohydrates

A diet high in saturated fat/excessive meat

Dehydration

Lack of body movement/exercise

Due to an illness or mechanical issue

The list of reasons could go on for quite a long time, but you get the picture. Constipation is generally a symptom of something else, and once that is remedied then the constipation will usually turn into regular bowel motions too. Let us focus on some ways in which we can help our bodies eliminate more efficiently:

Sleep is something that we all need, but unfortunately many people are suffering from insomnia and unable to switch off enough to get a good night's rest.Let’s take a look at our sleep, how much we need, what can go wrong, and how we can ensure we get a good night’s sleep.

Today's post is a short and sweet informational piece﻿ on one of my favourite beverages, coffee! This warming beverage does have some what of a bad rep in health and media circles. Indeed it is not a beverage I would recommend to people experiencing anxiety, hypertension or insomnia. However it does have positive properties and medicinal uses, not to mention a wonderful aroma and flavour.

Chances are you've heard someone talking about the wonders of apple cider vinegar, and you may even have some lurking in the back of your pantry. Both Science and folk lore have shown the benefits of this humble vinegar, and today I wanted to share some of these benefits and the evidence behind them; you might be surprised at some of them!

You've probably heard about Buckwheat, and how we should all be eating it in our diet. You've probably also been thinking 'why do I need to eat buckwheat, and what is it anyway'? Today I want to shed some light on this champion food, so you can understand both what it is, and why its so good for you! Let's go:

These days, we spend a lot of our time on the internet. Whether that's for work, or play, its definitely a well used resource and makes up a large part of the marketplace. So I thought it was about time that I shared with you some wonderful online resources that you can use to increase your: knowledge, recipe bank, healthy products, pantry staples etc.

FMTVThe first site I am excited to introduce to you is FMTV - short for Food Matters TV. This site is filled with the most wonderful health and wellness films on many and varied topics. Of course you will find the food matters documentaries, alongside yoga and exercise films, detox and weightloss documentaries, films on cancer treatments, lots of recipe videos, inspirational health films and so much more. If you click over to the website: www.fmtv.com.au you can actually sign up for a free 10 day trial to see if it's something for you. I highly encourage you to do so, because I know you will find some amazing nuggets of information and inspiration for your health and life journey here.